Twitter continues to grow in S. Korea as it reaches 3 million tweets per day

Twitter is finally showing signs of breaking into the mainstream in South Korea, according to new data published by The Chosunilbo.

Usage of the service has leapt up with it now seeing 3 million tweets sent each day from an estimated user base of 3.34 million people in the East Asian country. The latter figure is based on data from the Korean Advertisers Association and Media Research organisation, which found that 8.6 percent of 10,000 people it surveyed used the microblogging service at least once a week.

Twitter itself reportedly sees 200 million tweets sent per day across the world, so while 3 million is a small portion of that figure it does show that the service is gaining popularity in Korea despite being an ‘outsider’ in the country’s locally dominated social media space.

The service is a hit with young audiences in the country, with over half of all the surveyed users aged between 20 and 40 actively using the service, while none of the 1,195 respondents aged over 60 used it.

Like many other countries in Asia, politics is cited as a key driver that is bringing Koreans to the service. The survey suggests that the number of tweets relating to politics has shot up a massive ten-fold since January and Koreans are now sending an estimated 100,000 politically inclined messages per day. Although, with the country’s mayoral elections having just passed, some (or most) of it may just be attributable to a politically charged local atmosphere.

Since launching a local version in January, the microblogging service had struggled to make a major impression in Korea, where local social networks and content dominate the Internet.

Twitter isn’t the only Internet service gaining momentum through politics, however, as the recent mayoral elections saw a satirical podcast in the country pass 6 million downloads since starting in April this year.

Though South Korea wasn’t mentioned specifically when Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey discussed the service’s potential in Asia last month, its growth in Korea was further demonstrated when popular writer Lee Oisoo recently became the first Korean to reach one million followers, adding more than 250,000 since May alone.